This is a site where I post reviews of CDs, DVDs, LPs, and concerts. I have been writing music reviews on and off since 1984. I ran a heavy metal fanzine from 1984-1988 called Metal Madness and have been a staff writer for Aural Innovations for many years. I have also contributed to Chrohinga Well (RIP), Bad Acid (RIP), Lowcut (RIP), Roadburn and a number of other zines as well. I recently moved to Portugal so please request the new address and do not send any music to Denmark anymore. Tak..

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Multi-instrumentalist,
Robin Taylor is back with another release and it features the same crew (Karsten
Vogel, Hugh Steinmetz, Klaus Thane, Jakob Mygind, Louise Nipper) with which he
has now made many records with but the addition of highly acclaimed jazz
guitarist Jon Hemmersam, providing all the lead guitar. He is mainly featured
on the opening track, Floating Rats. The track starts very floating with just
saxophone as it slowly picks up and the drums, bass and finally guitar join the
drone keyboard and horns. At 3mins the track really picks up in intensity and
this is when Jon really kicks in with some fluid and fast guitar runs before
being counterbalanced by the horns. There is a bit of back and forth between
the horns and guitar to keep the track very fluid and interesting and then
Robin kicks in with the organ to change the dynamic. Excellent track. Munich is
the longest track on the album at 10½ mins and starts with some very happy
beautiful horns to compliment the repetitive almost Kraftwerk like synths
running beneath. Things change completely when the uptempo bass line takes the
lead and the different horn players just jam away and Robin comes back with
some organ as well. The track takes many different dynamics and includes adding
some effects to the horns. Robin plays a major role in this track. . Imaginary Church is much shorter
and features the organ quite prominent again in this 4½min track. Cruelty in
Words is a quite happy track with cool dynamics and a mix of organ and piano in
the quiet parts and the horns in the more melodic parts. Some interesting drums
(sound almost programmed, artificial) in the mid section. Jon is hardly playing
in this track only adding a couple of short solos near the end. Excellent
track. Jens in Afghanistan starts with some military snare drum theme and some
flute like horns. There is a sample of something about war playing in the
background. The theme slowly gets a bit darker in nature but returns to the
happy theme. Eventually the military snare drumming ends and then the track is
very saxophone dominated with a repeated theme by the others for a period until
the end. Sergeant Pepperoni ends the CD.
This track is 8½ mins long and starts with some spacey organ and saxophone as the
others slowly enter the soundscape. Jon plays some fantastic guitar in this
track and about half way through the track devolves into some freeform spacey
chaos before reappearing out the end into the main theme again. Cool.. Another really
excellent release from Robin and his creative crew..

The
latest release on the Malmö, Sweden based label, Kommun2 is a sort of super
group of folks who have recorded records for the label. This includes members
from the Aron Band, SKL, Anders and others. The main compositions are by Morten
Aron and Tobias Petterson (owner label, also plays bass and flute). Side A
starts with the Aron track, Skovsøen (The Forest Lake) and it is sung in
Danish. It has a very cool spacey, mysterious vibe with haunting voices, violin
and guitar. Later it evolves into a more psychedelic vibe. Øjesten (Eye Rock)
has a beautiful guitar melody and starts with violin. Mikael Ödesjö plays some
fantastic guitar on this track. Trold i Bakke (Troll in Tray) is an
instrumental piece by keyboardist Anders Pilegård. It starts off as a folky
thing but then goes into a more psychedelic section and back to the main theme.
Flip the record over and also change language from Danish to Swedish. Gånglåt
till Floalt (Marching Tune Floalt) starts as all the tracks have with violin
and then the organ takes the lead followed by the flute. Then the violin returns
to a more folky theme before the psychedelic lead guitar takes over and really
lifts the track into a new dimension, which reminds me of late 60s Pink Floyd
with the spacey organ and vocals and feeling. The last track Når lingonen
Mognar (After Lingonberries Matures is an old song by the Swedish band
Harvester) is a hypnotic track with a repeated choir of voices. Cool stuff. The
record comes in a super heavy sleeve with a beautiful artwork by the great
Swedish painter, Peter Wallgren. Single pressing in 500 copies only.

This
is quite a special release that comes as a 12” record plus a 7” in two colour
vinyl versions limited to 800 copies. There are 16 different artists and the
whole thing last about an hour. The songs back then were all pretty short. I am
not that familiar with the Hollies, but they were a UK band from Manchester who
played their own version of pop music akin to the Beatles with multi-harmony
vocals. Most of the tracks here are taken from the Hollies brief psychedelic
period from 1966-1967. Graham Nash was one of their key members. A few of the
labels standard artists are represented like the Bevis Frond (the best song on
the record, amazing version of Hard hard Year), Beautify Junkyards, The
Re-stoned, The Higher State, Langor, Electric Stars, Auralcandy, The Gathering
Gray, The Seventh Ring of Saturn, Hi Fiction Science, Sky Picnic, Us and Them
and Jay Tausig but also a lot of bands I have never heard of. Anyway, since I
have never heard the originals, it is really hard for me to comment but I think
this is a great release and true to the spirit of the original psychedelic music
birth of the 60s.. Great job..

Walden
is a duo of Jacob Moyer (drums, lyrics, flutes, voice) and ES Festus (bass,
electric, acoustic guitars). MMII-Golden Light broke over the waves starts with
some acoustic guitar and then an intense spacey electric guitar riff kicks in
that is repeated over and over as the bass takes the lead underneath the wall
of sound that has developed. It eventually comes down as the guitar riffs slow
down and the vocal starts and then the music gets very intense and a death-evil
style vocal takes over as the guys almost reach thrash metal intensity and a
layer of flute is added on for strange effect. A Walking Song is mainly
acoustic guitar with a occasional rhythm that sounds like a knock at the door.
Flip the tape over now for the MMXII- Every Star called our Names. This is a
very fast uptempo piece to start and even more low fi than A side. While the
music is pretty happy and melodic, the vocal is quite dark and almost evil but
the lyrics are actually quite positive. Strange combination. The Coda I starts
off with a bass, drums and flute and then the intense spacey riff guitar kicks
in but the flute is still driving the track until it just fades out. Coda II
ends the tape with some nice acoustic guitar playing. A very nice piece of
music. Inside the tape case you get the
lyrics to the two songs that have them.

Montibus
Communitas is a trio from Peru joining up with some of the Dutch people in
Ayahuasca Dark Trip. This is release is a vinyl only release in 300 copies. It
features two tracks per LP side. The first track, Amaru, is very organ driven
with some percussion (panning) and basic beats with some spacey sounds here and
there. It is very repetitive and not all that interesting until the last 5mins and
goes on for more than 15mins. It did not hold my attention very well and I kept
waiting for something more interesting to happen. El ‘rio al amanecer is much
shorter and ends the side. The water flows, some guitar is lightly played, a
flute and birds create some cool ambience in this track. Salmo a Cristo is a
short track starting side B of the record. It begins with a bit more noisy
percussion and then the organ drone followed by some nice flute. Eventually
some male and female voices appear as the organ drone gets louder and more
intense in the mix and the percussion more to the background. Semilla starts
with some forest birds before the effected organ sound fades up and a guitar
and some other instruments slowly become recognizable. Very spacey trippy sound
to start but then it lets lose it’s grip and begins to come to the standard
production sound of the record. If you want to take some sort of organ drone
forest trip, you might want to pick this up..

This
is a very strange but also pretty cool CD but you just have to approach it will
open ears. This group of Norwegians have been performing live for some years
but this is their debut CD on the Gazul label, a side label of Musea. The
material here was mainly played live in 2008 in locations in and around Bergen
in Norway. It features Dokto Døv, Professor Fokuda-San, and Professor Waffel (can
be seen playing with SEID) playing a wide range of analog synthesizers and
effects with the occasional vacuum cleaner, water filled bucket and other
strange things. The tracks are quite variable in length. I quite like the title
track the way it has this mysterious drone and then these sounds like someone
is trying to eat the tapes in the background or something strange is happening.
Later some analog loops drive the track after a strange transition. This kind
of strange drone, electronic trip music is pretty hard to describe. First
Report from the Temporary Laboratory of Buddha Pavilion, has a dreamy like
state with static sounds, bells, and a NASA sound sample at the end. Doktor
Døvs on the last sound you will ever here is pretty strange stuff as well
lasting nearly 10 mins. How to wear a lab coat is a track that is really cut up
into strange pieces, samples, sounds, evolutions. Notes from Professor Fokudas
mountain Seminar starts of droney and different sounds enter and leave at what
seems to be random as the track evolves, sputters, trips, falls, gets back up
again and finally leaves. The last track only lasts 4 seconds and then the
51min trip is over. The music is totally experimental, far out, challenging,
sometimes exciting, sometimes a bit too weird but always intriguing for patient
people. Cool stuff.

Some
of the members of Hawkwind, the ones that live close to where Dave Brock lives
and has the Hawkwind studio, have put together this record. All the songs are
by Dave, Richard (Drums, vocals) and Niall (guitar, bass). The material was
recorded in 2011 and appears as outtakes, experiments, strange visions, and
stuff that just did not fit in with the Onward LP. I have to say the CD is real
mixed bag. Some of it is really great and some just does not speak to me. The
CD came out in December 2012 and the vinyl edition is due out in April and
limited to 500 copies. 11 tracks, 53mins starting off with Stellar Perspective.
The sound is quite psychedelic with multiple layers of guitars, spinning,
pulsing synths and Dave’s vocal with some effects and more to the back and it
slowly moves more to the front. Richard takes the 2nd lead vocal as
the track slows down. Great bass playing. All our Dreams is more tranquiel and
spacey with a more spoken word vocal. That classic spacey Dave Brock guitar is
so nice. The track really evolves into an almost like dance track but maintains
this cool guitar line. Not sure the keyboard really fits but what the hell.
Cool track. Damp day in August is a short piece that leads into the up tempo
and political track, It’s all Lies. Niall lays down the cool bass line and a
catchy political track takes hold (“Forget about religion, it’s down with the
Pope!”). Variation 3 is a short instrumental track with a lot of strange
overdubs and sounds but a nice lead guitar section complimenting the distorted
Fender Rhodes like piano. Four Legs good, two legs Bad has programmed drums and
would have fit well on the White Zone record with its ambient space keyboard line. It takes a dramatic change at 1min and then
the repeated song title with strange voices, barking dogs, etc.. is quite far
out.. almost disturbing. In the Footsteps of the Great One is next and I wonder
who they are talking about as you can’t tell from the lyrics, some of which
Dave borrows from some of his older songs. IT starts with an eastern string
instrument before the spacey synths and vocals take over. Quite a few layers of
stuff going on as the drum groove kicks in to give the track a steady rhythm.
Spaced out! A song for a New Age is one the band has played live in the past
(and written by Tim Blake) features Richard on the main vocal and Dave plays a
nice guitar solo while Niall gives the track its main body with great bass
playing. The track is pretty basic and not nearly as layered as most of the
tracks. We serve Mankind starts with a trance techno like keyboard that briefly
fades to the back as the guitar, bass and drums take over this dark electronic
track. City of Rust starts with a flight introduction sample before the track
begins. Powerful lyrics on this one and delivered in a spoken word fashion,
kind of like the Calvert-Brock CD. Then at 1½ mins it turns into one of the
most rocking tracks on the CD. Instant Predictions closes the CD also in a
rocking way with Richard on the lead vocal. It has a really spaced out sound.
Pretty cool record.

Harrow
is a three piece band from Victoria, Canada, that plays very raw, nasty,
sometimes doomy stuff, other times quite melodic. This band reminds me of
Kreator or Bathory without the guitar solos. Into the Valley starts with acoustic guitar as
the drums build up and then intense evil thrash kicks in. The next two songs
are also found on the live side of the tape. Journey into the Mountain and To
weather the Storm follow. This part of the tape mellows things out for a bit
with some acoustic pieces until the band kicks in hard and heavy and screaming
again. Exile and Rebirth end the powerful side A. Side B of the tapes is live
at the Moontower and features a couple of the songs from the A side. The sound
quality is really raw and nasty. Keening starts things off doomy but then it
changes to a more melodic thread. The vocals are like death metal though. In
the Shadow of the Stone (also on the A side) is more lead by the bass until the
noisy thrash begins. Very low fi insane sound. Vast unending Lands continues
the aural assault of raw, nasty metal in this short track. After a brief talk
introduction, the band kicks into the intense Wraith. Watcher (not the
Motorhead/ Hawkwind track), is also very extreme music. The side ends with Snow
Falls on the Night of the Solstice, which is also featured on the A side of the
tape. Very Intense and raw stuff. Not easy on the ears.. Recommend to play at
low volume at least the B side of the tape.

GNOD
are back with another release. I buy and collect all that I can by the band but
I have to say the last couple have really let me down. I think they are just
starting to release everything no matter how interesting it is or not. Anyway,
this a pretty cheap production with just black and white artwork and a black
label (hard to tell which side is which), on a thin gold vinyl pressing.
Dwellings- Revalation 9 starts the record off and it about 15-20 min drone drum
machine piece. Quite repetitive and you really lose interest after a while. No
guitar, no bass, no vocals, … pretty boring stuff. Flip the record over and you
have Druss- 20 sides a Minute. It starts with a repeated synthesizer loop and
does not really go anywhere or do anything interesting besides speed up and it
is over. The next piece called Dwellings- Defeatism is by far the most
interesting and evolved track. The only one really worth listening to. After
the synth loop a simple kick drum pattern is repeated over and over.
Eventually, a like snare edge is added to make the rhythm more complex and more
synth layers start to appear as well as it builds up into some a bit more
interesting. it becomes almost tribal the rhythm but the rest is just not very
interesting. Pity… I also did not like the split with Shit and Shine very much
so did not review it. This is nothing like the great records they have released
with Rocket.

The
Swedish psychedelic rock band, Flowers must Die are back with a new double
vinyl release on the Kommun2 label. It features 8 instrumental songs spread
over the 4 sides. The material on this LP is a mix of old and new material with
some recorded as long ago as 2008. The record starts off with Jamfota which
gets you into the comfort zone of the band but then when Enio starts it gets
very tripped out stuff with strange sounds, intense bass lines, driving
rhythms, and just damn freaked out! Ennio jam sort of fades away, just before
you think you have had enough… Spindlarnas Träd has quite a heavy riff and is
lead by the violin and later the electric guitar along the mighty path of
destruction. Köket Brinner maintains this dark brooding theme. Hörsägen brings
things back down to earth in a floating style but still freaky. Gkenvandring is
a side long track that has a lead by a heavy bass line but then slowly takes on
its on universe as the guitar drive the melodic and also noisy aspect and the
synths and sounds create the intensity. Make sure you are strapped in properly.
Side D starts off with Blågylta and is another intense one lead by a repetitive
rhythm-groove. IT kind of freaks you out the way they raise some of the instruments
volume quite dramatically without notice to keep you on guard. Now, the trip is
ending. FMD are a quite special psychedelic experience travelling in their own
special musical universe sometimes alongside groups like the Spacious Mind and
Hawkwind and other times in a more tripped out universe. I have seen them three
times live and they are always cool and interesting. Freak out..

Elevatorfører is a
new Danish psychedelic rock band. They are a large and quite funny band and all
the songs are sung in Danish and the band dresses in cool attire for their live
shows. This album was recorded live at the Copenhagen venue, Amager Bio. The
band was opening up for Young Flowers and Spids Nøgenhat. Den Magiske Skala
opens the record up with a pretty rocking uptempo track where as on most
tracks, the farfisa is the lead instrument. Søsangen (The Sea Song) starts with
the sounds of bubbles being blown into a large bucket as the singer tells the audience
it is ok to smoke your joints now. This is a beautiful floating song. Ukendt
Etage (Unknown Floor) starts with a real 60s style guitar line and the farfisa
again takes the lead. Skovtur (Forest Trip) features some acoustic guitar but
is a track you could imagine at the Matrix in San Francisco in the 60s. Side B
starts with Den Hypnotiske jakke (The hypnotic Jacket) features a more
psychedelic keyboard and is one of the longest, best and most psychedelic
tracks on the record. Vertikal Bus (Vertical Bus) is back to your
straightforward farfisa driven 60s track. Samerens Rejse (Same’s Trip) is a
quite spacey track as the band meanders and the different instruments add to
the slow moving soundscape and the singer gives his best vocals. Now the trip
is over, about 35mins. If they had used some vocal effects, more liberty with
instrument panning,etc. it would make
the music quite a bit more psychedelic. While the mix is really good, the ones
mixing don’t really have that much of a sense for the psychedelic even though
that is the genre this music is in. Cool
release, especially if you understand Danish and are fans of 60s organ driven
psych. The record is released on vinyl only in 500 copies but also comes with a
coupon for the digital version as well and a large full color booklet with
great photos of the band and event and all the information.

Dean
Allan Floyd is a new four act from Sweden featuring a Canadian on lead vocals
and guitar. This is their 2nd
release following up their debut from March 2012 called “The sounds can be so
Cruel”. I never heard the LP but it got
great reviews. The EP starts off with Sadness of Mankind. IT has a 60s style
vibe with the vocal, organ and cool drive of the ethereal organ. The guitar
break section has quite a psychedelic mix. Insects is a special track with
quite a lot of stuff happening and lots of different spaced out and cool sections
in this generally UK inspired psych song. Leave me Be is a short blues track.
Hwy Lost (Revisited) has a great guitar riff and groove that drives this track.
It gets really psyched out at the end. Far out. The title track, Road to Atlas
ends this 22min EP and it is a more laid back track with some backwards
effects. Pretty psychedelic stuff.. The band starts off their 3 week European
tour in Copenhagen on March 1st. Hope to see you there to support
this cool jamming psychedelic rock band. They are supposed to play different
sets every night and do some jamming.

DT
are a Dutch band and this is the first release on the new Greek Label, Cosmic
Eye. The material on this LP has been previously available on the bands web
site, where I had listened to it several times. The band has made 3 releases on
bandcamp but this is the first on vinyl. There is 100 copies on dark red vinyl
and 200 on black. It also comes with a A1 size poster that is very cool. Astral
Sunset starts the record off on its hypnotic and heavy trip. The music is
mostly just heavy guitar, bass and drums but at different times, organ, didgeridoo,
flutes, floating vocals, enter into the picture. Very spacey and trippy at
times. Mind Journey raises the intensity level as the trip becomes darker and
more dangerous.. Lucky, you get a break as you need to flip the record to hear
To the Holy Mountain! It starts with some backwards parts over the bass line
that goes on for several minutes before the drums kick in and the haunting
psychedelic voices creep into the picture. The guitar slowly takes the lead as
the track just keeps drawing you in further and further from your reality. Space
Raga ends this amazing space trip.

Fans of Lamp of the Universe, Dark
Budda Rising, and BONG, will dig this band…

If
I am not mistaken, this is the first US band ever released on Elektrohasch
Records. The three piece band hails from Nashville and you can hear some of
this influence in the music for sure. While the band is a three piece there is
much more than just guitar, bass and drums on the CD. Sometimes Hammond organ,
like on this opening track, Heavy like a Witch. This reminds me of Sgt Sunshine
but with a more bluesy edge until the organ kicks in. This is one of the
heaviest tracks on the record so don’t be misled but this one as the record has
a lot of diversity to follow. The Urn is lead but a simple foot stomping rhythm
and slide guitar. Bloodhounds, has a more intense in your face guitar in this
really bluesy track. Guns is a slow stoney track with cool lyrics but then it
really picks up at the end into a heavy groove. Elkblood Heart is slower heavy
ballad a bit like US Christmas but with a laid back vocal. Until it Unwinds is
a slow building track which features some cool spacey delay guitar along the
trip. Some piano can also be heard low in the mix but higher towards the end
when they sort of jam this one out. It is the longest track on the CD at
8½mins. Easy goes back to the late 60s early 70s sounds of Neil Young and
features some nice slide guitar. Family Song for the Leaving is another laid
back track before the excellent and emotional Right Hand track that ends this
enjoyable album. At times, the band
plays a very cool bluesy version of stoner rock and other times more 70s styles
blues rock with a lot of slide guitar. Fans of the Flying Eyes will probably
dig these guys but maybe not think they are psychedelic enough.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Mantric
Muse, the Copenhagen instrumental progressive psychedelic rock band are back
playing gigs once again in support of their new CD, which came out in December
2012. I used to hang out and see the guys play all the time but they stopped
playing live in 2006 and are not back. It was a cold, snowy night but some
people decided to leave the house. The doors did not open until 22 and MM
started playing about 22:45. Stefan and Thomas from Gas Giant came and they had
never seen Mantric Muse back in the day. Tom, as well as some of the regulars
that come and see the band out in Dragens Hule were here as well. I guess about
35-40 people were in the audience. The band opened with an older song in a new
arrangement called DMU. Next was Sinbad Søfareren and this sounded great. The
sound was good upfront to the stage but further back in the room, it was a bit
boomy and the drums had a special sound. We stood up front. Cinope was next and
I filmed this one. See below. Nanoid was next but they had to stop about one
minute into the song as the computer synth sequences and the band were slightly
off. Magnus stopped everyone and they reset and off they went. They play a
great version of Azur, Sfunx, the ambient track Gnoxience and ending the set
with a long jam on Deep Sea Cheops. They also played a new song that they have not recorded yet called Armh. It was a cool set and some people were dancing and into it while most sat
in the corner not sure what to make of it since they were here to see the
Swedish Reggae band that was next!

Next
up was Storskogen (Large Forest), a band described as Swedish Forest reggae. I
was not sure exactly what that was until the band started playing and then I
understood. They are a 7 piece band with bass, drums, guitar, keyboards,
percussion, sitar and a lady who played violin and flutes. I really liked the
opening track (see video below) and now I could understand why it was
forest-folk reggae. The violin really made it cool and the sitar was a nice
compliment. The sitar player only played on every 3rd song or so and
they mixed instrumental songs with ones with Swedish vocals. The guitar player
and female violin player did the singing. I actually thought they were quite
good and unique and I don’t think I have seen a band quite like this. It has
been some years since I saw a reggae band and I enjoyed it. Cool evening..

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

This was our first
concert of the year and what a cool party it was on this cold winter night. Jiri
the bass player from Fri Galaxe, Univerzals was turning 30 and throwing a party
at Den Grå Hall in Christiania. He had
arranged for 5 bands to play and we were supposed to be the last band at around
23:30 but of course it rarely works out right. Sabine and I showed up about
21:30 or so and it was a damn cold bike ride (about -5C outside plus some
wind). When we arrived the 3rd band was suppose be starting but the
first act was only just finishing! I also did not really know what the line up
of the band was going to be tonight and we might only have one guitar player.
People slowly showed up though. Jocke, then Nick and last Mogens after
midnight. PIB was there and wanted to play drums so we said yes.

Jiri’s
band Fri Galaxe played a nice set and really had the crowd of about 80 people
dancing and very happy. A cool band that plays melodic blues rock with all
Danish lyrics and some hippie and political themes. They also have a wonderful
female singer. They played about an hour and then a band I don’t know what
their name was.

They had a female singer who also
played a beautiful Les Paul (played nearly the same chords on every song), another
guitar player, bass and drums. They played high energy pop music. Someone said
they sounded like Juliana Hatfield but I don’t know who she is. I got pretty
bored with them and they had a hard time getting anyone interested either. I
liked some of what the bass player played but they were just not that
interesting. They were having fun, which was great.

Set List:Good Intentions, If, You
in Me, Anything but Ordinary, Bitter Taste, Liar, Another Night, Tenfold,
Forget Me, Until you Said, Oxymoron

KIC

KIC (Kids in Christiania) were
next and they rocked the place. They have a really powerful female singer and
two guitar players, neither played any lead guitar to speak of. Now people were
up front and singing and having a good time again. It was getting fucking late
though and I wondered when they would finish. I heard the music had to stop at
02:30 but then Jiri’s said no, it was cool to play longer. People really enjoyed their set and then most
of the people left.

It
was around 01:30 when we finally got started and it was a mixture of pretty
wasted people by this time and a total of maybe 40 people. We had PIB on drums
to start the show and I don’t know how long he played before Martin from Fri
Galaxe took over and as I recall the drummer from KIC even jumped in during the
2nd jam, which was like 57mins long! We had the horn section from
Fri Galaxe (Tobias-Sax, Ole- Trombone) join and that was great. Nick was all
alone on the guitar so it was good to have the horns, which I think worked
great. Nick was amazing this night though. Playing really cool stuff. The
concert was a bit crazy to start as Mogens was still setting up when the
concert just sort of started on it’s own.. Jiri would pop up now and then and
he played the lead synth at the very beginning, helped on bass (by knealing
below Jocke and playing some stuff on the neck), played the floor tom, and even
the trombone. Wild stuff… Some of the concert was really cool and I am not sure
about the rest but it was damn fun…. as always.. You can hear the show below.
Enjoy…

Sunday, February 3, 2013

Traveling
Circle is a underground band from the USA and released on the German label,
Nasoni Records, which specializes in psychedelic rock bands from around the
world. They released the band’s first record as well. The band is a three piece
and they are not playing long spaced out pieces (maybe live) but the LP
features 10 songs (34mins) but they are not that straightforward and they have
a special sound with falsetto vocals, plenty of fuzz and echo and a nice analog
sound. Higher starts with a repetitive riff and an echoed ethereal vocal that
you can hardly make out. One might think a bit of Wooden shjips but the bass is
played totally different. The Candlelight Sways is a more heavy number and also
features some Theremin. Newborn Shadow is slow and spacey. Green Spider is
instrumental and features some guitar not unlike Yawning Man. Closer is nearly
instrumental with just 3 lines of words (see the nice color insert) and a
fuzzed out guitar played in a quite stoned way. Awesome song. Flip the record
over for the Willow Tree Fair. This one has a really cool spacey wah guitar and
this really dreamy vocal. Some electric piano really compliments the track
well. I love the psychedelic guitar break on this one. Rock this Feeling is
really different from other tracks with a interesting vocal approach mixing the
falsetto and normal vocal and a nice groove and guitar. Fountain of Time starts
with a drum solo, how rare is that? Conduit is Closing is spacey and features
some more Theremin. Quite psychedelic stuff. Tears from the Soul closes this 34
min psychedelic experience. This is best to hear when you are stoned…

This
is a female fronted 4 piece band that plays spacey melodic music. Guitarist and
vocalist Shelby writes all the songs. Go on Forever starts the side A with an
organ before the guitar and stoned groove takes on and the dreamy vocal takes
center place. Cool song. The title track is next is more repetitive and later
on some cool organ takes the lead and the guitar changes and attempts a bit of
interplay before the track fades out. The Haunting starts with a delay guitar and
just floats. Nice track. The Side B starts with Hot Fire, which is an uptempo
track with the guitar in the front and a cool vocal. It also features short
guitar and keyboard solos. All of his love is more straight forward short rock
track with no solos. Turn to Dust lets the keyboards take the lead. This is not
some commercial rock. It is melodic, sometimes catchy but it always has this
low fi, spacey vibe to it.

Timemazine
is a super cool magazine from Greece. IT often comes with a CD or 7” record of
rare or unreleased material. In this case you get both with a super cool 7”
record of unreleased material by the excellent Greek band, Purple Overdose. The
CD that comes with the issue features a mixture of released and unreleased
material by the bands that there are articles on in the issue. The unreleased
tracks are by the Bevis Frond, Permanent Clearlight, Cranium Pie, Sendelica and
a rare uncut version of an old Alrune Rod song covered by Spids Nøgenhat! This
issue has long, in-depth and great interviews with a wide range of people in
the psychedelic music scene, some from the early days like Mark Weitz and George
Bunnell from Strawberry Alarm Clock, Keith Law from Jardine to more
contemporary people like Lorenzo Woodrose (Spids Nøgenhat, Dragontears, Baby
Woodrose) and the Flying Eyes. I have read a lot of interviews with Nick
Saloman from the Bevis Frond, but I have to say this was one of the best I have
read. The article on Evi Hassapides Watson was very interesting as I had never
heard of her. It is a really excellent
magazine and I highly recommend you check it out if you like to read some
interesting stories about bands you may know and some you may not know.

Vokokesh
is back with another improvised jamming spaced out psychic trip to another
strange world. The band is stripped down to just guitar, bass and drums and
strange percussion instruments with some spoken word poem thrown in one track.
Base Metal Blues starts things off in a slow growing way and Richard really
experiments with some super cool guitar effects that sound harsh and metallic
at times. Doing a Slow Burn is next and very strange with some guitar tuning
torture, percussion and unintelligible samples. The Fuzz God Awakens starts
with some mid paced steady drums and guitar that slowly gets more and more
effects layered on it as Richard takes the solo further and further. They are
strange jammers.

Flip the record over to the Four
Elements. It starts off more straightforward with just some guitar riffing as a
real track tries to evolve and it is a bit melodic as well and features a
really nice solo but it gets really far out. Otto mit dem Barte starts pretty
far out with a spoken word piece just as the 2nd piece on the other
side did but you can at least tell it is German! The Philosopher’s Tone is the
last track on this pretty experimental LP. Richard plays some cool guitar with
a bit of delay and later wah guitar, as they push the intensity. I think some
people are not really going to appreciate the very free and crazy approach to
this record, others will love it.

This
was a Japanese only release by the cool psychedelic rock band, Eternal Elysium.
I had my good friend Hatsumi send it to me. Highflyer" is the theme for
Shinya Ishikawa (from Big Japan Pro Wrestling), which I think is pretty cool.
Anyway, the EP is only released in Japan for now and will eventually come out
on vinyl with some extra material. High Flyer is the opening track. It starts
with a riff a lot like Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin but then goes in a
different direction when the singing kicks in. Heavy and intense and later the
saxophone and trumpet kicks in to make it a bit more psychedelic. Map is sung
in Japanese and a bit more melodic but still it has a pretty heavy guitar riff
and the occasional slide guitar as well. Tana, the female bass player also
sings a little at the end. Circulation is next and this was also on the 10”
with Sardonis but it might be a slightly different version here? A really cool
psychedelic guitar solo is unleashed as this track really kicks ass. Heavy
intense stoned doomy track. High Flyer- Down not Out ends the CD. This is not
at all just a reprises of the first track. It is really cool and experimental
with piano, trumpet, sax and not much guitar at all.

The
UK Psychedelic Space rock band, Earthling Society is back with a new record.
This one was all recorded on one day in July 2012 in Blackpool, UK. The band is
stripped down to just a three piece on this release so the main tracks focus on
Fred’s spacey guitar, the bass and drums but there are also layers of extra
guitar, spaced out sounds, synths, etc.. You hear it is a bit more freeform though.
Zodiak starts things off and is a mid- paced and pretty psychedelic track the
way the guitar and vocals are mixed. The drums have quite some reverb and the
snare is loud and really cuts through the mix. The Silver and the Black really
picks up the pace but the sound is quite psychedelic. The section just before
the guitar solo is really tripped out. Quite a long track, over 10 mins. The
million headed Cobra of Eternity is a shorter song that ends the A side of the
record. It starts very mellow and floating but features some great
multi-layered guitar. It is mostly instrumental until the end. Great stuff.
Now, flip the vinyl over and start the 2nd part of your journey with
Silver Phase. Silver Phase starts in the middle of a jam and is faded up just
as you can catch the beginning of the trip. IT has this really heavy effect on
the sound which gives it this really spaced out sound but it is over in just a
couple of minutes. Strange.. The Astral Traveller takes the rest of the side
and it starts off reminding me of the great Hawkwind classic, 7 by 7. Fred
plays some fantastic guitar is this great long floating, spacey track. The
track seems like it is coming to a end with a lot of spaced out guitar effects
but then he kicks back in with a riff and the band comes back driven by a heavy
bass line before the guitar really takes the lead again. They return to the 7
by 7 like theme at the end. Fans of early Hawkwind will really dig this record.
I should mention that this will also be released on CD by the 4Zero Records
label, which has released many of the bands other records. It will include 4
bonus tracks.

This is a cassette only release
and features 9 tracks by this mainly one man act (Benjamin Thomas-Kennedy). It
features a few live tracks as well as three guests (Nathan, Ryan and Jesse). Side
A is mostly all ambient spacey stuff with a focus on just synthesizers. The
exception is Ianos, which features the other guys listed above. Dr Shambles
starts side B with some fast drums and then the guitar and keyboards kicks in.
This is something really different and raw as the instruments don’t really
complement each other at first but then they seem to communicate a bit more.
The Lateral Power has a the same folks but totally different keyboards and what
sounds like a drum machine. Killingsworth is a very dreamy piece. Slow Release
sees the return of the other guys again. Interesting release and quite
different from the other tapes from this label.

About Me

I am a research scientist doing Diabetes research and I do music journalism on the side and have been writing about music for 28 years now. I also lead an all improvised psychedelic space rock band called the Øresund Space Collective. I also am an avid collector of music.